Overview
- Mosques in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham hosted mourning events after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death, with images of candles and portraits shared online.
- Footage from outside the Islamic Centre of England in north London showed a congregant declaring “We will obey you Khamenei” beside candlelit photos.
- The centre remains under a Charity Commission investigation opened in 2022 over claims it operates as an arm of the Iranian state, allegations it rejects in statements stressing religious and community work.
- Campaigners including United Against Nuclear Iran’s Kasra Aarabi condemned the tributes as support for a leader they say had “British blood on his hands” and pressed the government to curb Iranian‑linked influence.
- Calls by some Labour backbenchers to proscribe Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were reiterated, with security reporting citing at least 20 UK threat cases linked to the IRGC since 2022.